Ongoing Events at Awakening Truth Learning Center

Tuesday Meditation or Inquiry: We will begin with 30 minutes of silent meditation, followed by a talk, then either Inquiry on the 1&3 Tuesday or discussion on the 2&4 Tuesday.

We are navigating a lot of challenge and change in our world right now. It is really important to return to source- what is ever present, unshakable and reliable. For this reason the next several months are going to be a deep dive into the facets of awakening. We are going to begin with the classic book The Island; An Anthology of the Buddha's teaching on Nibbana (Unshakable freedom) by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. PDF, e-book and request for print copy can be found here:

What is inquiry?Inquiry takes your ability to be with your own sensations, emotions and thoughts and brings it to the experience of listening and speaking with another. Inquiry enhances non-judgmental witness so your ability to see clearly and to integrate and transcend to greater levels of wholeness increases. It also creates deep and intimate connection as your inquiry partners are a living breathing part of your meditation experience.

Friday morning meditation will be peer led. This means we will take it in turns to find a short reading that speaks to your expereince and invites discussion. When you lead, makes 10 copies and bring the centerpiece shrine.

Friday meditation Format: We begin with 30 minutes silence (there can be a little music to accompany the first few mintues of meditation but come early and bring your own equiptment as we don't have a sound system), then presenter reads and shares for a 2-3 minutes on what moved them to practice with what was read. They then invite disucssion with all of us. We close at 8:25 AM with a circle of light and love, bringing to mind those who need more support. Optional potluck breakfast can go until 9 AM. After a few months of meeting, the group will decide the name of the meditation group. Anyone is welcome to come late and leave early. Door will be left unlocked.

Directions: Valley View Apartments on Tachevah includes both 2727 and 2735 and is a few blocks from the Bennet Valley shopping center. Revelations Chiropractic is on the corner of Yulupa and Tachevah. To find 2727 Apt #24, look for the Valley View Apartment sign. Apartment #24 is the first apartment you see as you face Yulupa street. At night look for Christmas lights inside the windows, during the day look for Prayer flags in the window facing the Valley View Apartment sign.

Street parking only.

Teachings are given freely and you are invited to support with generosity, making it possible for others to also benefit from these teaching which liberate.

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About the author

Ajahn or Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni was born into a loving family of Jewish ancestry in Burbank, California. She was first introduced to Buddhist teaching and insight meditation in 1979 in a class taught by Jack Engler at University of California Santa Cruz. From that time she consciously committed to awakening and envisioned living her life as a nun. From the onset, Ajahn Chah, Dipa Ma and His Holiness the Dalai Lama were primary inspirations to her. Her teachers also included Christopher Titmuss, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfeild, Peace Pilgrim and the work and teachings of Gandhi.

After completing a BA in Biology from UC Santa Cruz, she worked for a few years as an analytical chemist. In 1987 she went on a pilgrimage to India, Nepal and Thailand to meet and practice with Dipa Ma, his Holiness Dalia Lama, Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Buddhadasa; meditation masters she had heard about in 1979.

In 1989, she formally joined the Ajahn Chah lineage and the community of nuns at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery to begin training as a novice. That began the process of intensive training, study and meditation practice. After 2 years as an Anagarika, she received ordination in 1991 with Ajahn Sumedho as her preceptor. She lived at both Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist Monasteries in England.

For several years Amma Thanasanti was involved in the leadership team and guidance of the nuns' community at Chithurst and Amaravati. Since 1996 her community and monastic responsibilities were interspersed with teaching intensive meditation retreats in the US, UK, Switzerland and Australia.

In 2000 she took Bodhisattva vows with His Holiness Dalai Lama en-route to spend extensive time in retreat in the remote bush of Australia. From that point on, her practice shifted and the place of compassion and relationship with nature became central.

In order to pursue her vision of how monastic and lay practitioners can work together in the modern world to create viable communities for practice in the United States, she took the significant step of leaving the formal affiliations of Amaravati and associated monastic communities and returned to the USA. In 2009 she founded Awakening Truth a non-profit 501 (c)3 organization whose mission is to create a Bhikkhuni training monastery and facilitate ways monastics and lay practitioners can work together to support whole life practice.

In August 2010, after being a nun for 19 years, she was ordained as a Bhikkhuni at Aranya Bodhi Forest Hermitage, in the historic first dual Theravada Bhikkhuni ordination to be conducted in North America. Ayya Tathaaloka is her preceptor.

Amma’s work spans rigorous understanding of Buddhist teachings, non-dual meditation, depth psychology, subtle body energies, and the Divine Feminine. She teaches meditation as an art and skill, integrating body, heart and mind with finesse and compassion.

Currently she is based at the Shakti Vihara hermitage in Santa Rosa California as a solitary alms mendicant nun where her time is interspersed between writing, teaching, meditating and being involved in the local community.

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